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Potted Meats

Cooked ham and roast veal pounded with butter and spices, pressed into pots and covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Soak the ham for twelve hours.

  2. Wipe the ham dry and nicely trim it.

  3. Wrap the ham closely in coarse paste.

  4. Bake the ham very tender.

  5. When it comes from the oven, remove the crust and rind.

  6. When the ham is perfectly cold, weigh the lean after removing every morsel of skin and fibre.

Make the potted meat

  1. Mince the lean ham and the roast veal quite fine with an exceedingly sharp knife, cutting through the meat and not tearing the fibre.

  2. Put the meat into a large stone or marble mortar.

  3. Pound the meat to the smoothest paste with the fresh butter, added by degrees.

  4. When three parts beaten, strew over the mace, nutmeg and cayenne.

  5. Keep the meat often turned from the sides to the middle of the mortar so it is seasoned equally.

  6. Beat the meat long and patiently until perfectly pounded.

Pot and store

  1. Press the meat into small potting-pans.

  2. Pour clarified butter that is less than milk-warm over the top.

  3. Keep in a cool and dry place.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

120Calories
0 gProtein
13 gFat
2 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 6 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Vealnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh butter
Enriches the paste and gives it a smooth, rich texture that holds it together.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the meat.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, sweet aroma that complements the mace.
Cayenne
Adds gentle heat that sharpens the savoury flavour.
Roast veal
Provides the main meat body and mild flavour for the paste.

The step that matters

Pound the meat until perfectly smooth. Long, patient pounding breaks the meat fibres and blends the butter evenly, giving a smooth, spreadable texture. Adding butter gradually and turning the meat keeps the seasoning and fat evenly distributed.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, meat, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, meat, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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